


LostLightFest (2018 Edition because I'm slow)

by grimmie_me



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Brain Damage, Depression, Implied/Referenced Brainwashing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:00:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27023158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grimmie_me/pseuds/grimmie_me
Summary: After a long absence from fanfic writing, I decided to come back in slowly, with a collection of Drabbles.  I saw the Lost Light Fest challenge for October...and recognized (or knew enough to write about) maybe half the characters.  Not good.  So instead of educating myself; I did what every lazy/busy person would do and reached back to a previous challenge.  So please enjoy this very late Lost Light Fest from 2018!
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	1. Day 1 – Ultra Magnus – Big boots to fill

**Author's Note:**

> Standard Disclaimer apply: all characters belong to Hasbro/IDW

It was an expression he had learned from Verity: big boots to fill. Translated: to have much to live up to. Minimus knew all about expectations and failing to deliver on them.

It had ruled his life as the lesser mech in House Ambus, for who could ever outshine Dominus? When Dominus had went missing, Rewind was far from the only mech who searched relentlessly. His friends and co-workers had spent thousands of years looking. When Minimus had given up everything and everyone to take up the mantle of Ultra Magnus, no-one had missed him. He received exactly one message from Rewind and silence from everyone else, like he had never existed in the first place. 

The feeling of being inadequate had also squeezed around his spark every time Tyrest had dropped the slightest hint of not living up to the standard of his predecessors in the role of Duly Appointed Enforcer of the Tyrest accord. It began to drive his already exacting standards ever higher, until he was at the edge of a breakdown when it all fell apart on Luna-1.

It was therefor a bitter irony to finally be seen as himself in the optics of another and not be found wanting. And for that other to be the Warlord whose orders had killed millions.


	2. Day 2 – Rodimus – Crisis of faith

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Standard Disclaimer applies: all characters belong to Hasbro/IDW
> 
> _Unreliable narrator warning: this is what happens when you fight with depression, kids._

Rodimus looked at his hand, at the tally carved there, and wondered where it had all gone so astray. When he carried the Matrix, it had all seemed so clear: his purpose, his path, his reason for being. There was no darkness, only light, and it beckoned him forward, showed him where to go, what to do. But of course it hadn’t lasted.

Where had that clarity gone? Where was it during his meeting with Prowl, when he agreed to take Overlord aboard? Where was it during that first disastrous jump that had killed several of his crew before they had even really started their Crusade? Where was it when he exiled Drift for the supposed good of the ship? Mistake after mistake, leading to that damned tally and the only certainty he had left.

They should have never left him in his position of Captain, sooner or later he would get them all killed. After all, he had never been good for anything after Nyon.


	3. Day 12 – Sunder – Dirty little secrets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Standard Disclaimer applies: all characters belong to Hasbro/IDW
> 
> I feel like I should warn for Sunder being Sunder *shrugs*

The Lost Light was the most tasty buffet Sunder had ever encountered. A ship full of war-torn minds, all lying to themselves just to get through the day. And the delicious terror that resulted from confronting them with their fears, he could roll around in it for days!

_I’ve betrayed my friends._

_I killed so many mechs during the war, maybe some of them were innocent._

_Surely killing a few Cons doesn’t make me a bad mech? Others killed a lot more!_

Pathetic. All he had to do was look into their optics, show them the truth they tried to hide from and they fell apart into a bunch of trauma and rotted hopes.

Now, if only he could find a way to get his hands on that scrumptious, fracturing mind of their dear Captain...


	4. Day 14 – Brainstorm & Perceptor - Since you’ve been gone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Standard Disclaimer applies: all characters belong to Hasbro/IDW
> 
> _I know that they’re supposed to have different labs, but I’m working from the assumption Brainstorm only uses his when he’s handling really volatile stuff and that they work in Perceptor’s otherwise._

If Perceptor had thought that the absence of Brainstorm would make his lab quieter and therefor more productive, he had had his theory proven wrong almost from the get-go. Instead of cherishing the quiet, he found himself looking up to share a finding with his colleague, or wanting to ask him for his opinion only to realize there was no-one there anymore.

Brainstorm’s workbench stood abandoned, his latest project in different pieces, spread all about like it’s owner had just taken a small break and would be back to finish it any moment. 

His spark ached, a feeling he had thought himself incapable of after his stint with the Wreckers: he had banned all emotions to the back of his mind as irrelevant in favor of just surviving. Yet somehow, over the course of this ridiculous journey, on this even more ridiculous ship, Brainstorm had managed to open up that tightly closed box of feelings and it had remained open even when the Jet himself wasn’t present.

Perceptor nodded resolutely: he would finish his current task for Getaway and then ask their new Captain if there had been any word from the others. If everything else failed, he could still entice Brainstorm back with admitting to the possibility that the Jet might be the better scientist. Perceptor’s previous experience told him there was only a 5 percent chance Brainstorm could ignore a statement like that.


	5. Day 9 - Grimlock - Seeing is believing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Standard Disclaimer applies: all characters belong to Hasbro/IDW

Grimlock’s systems rebooted slowly as he came out of recharge. Pressure sensors along his side alerted him to another living form leaning against him there. He felt a stretch of backplating and then two points to either side, pressing and flitting away again: wingpoints attached to an excitable flier. That was okay, Swoop often used him as a pillow, his light chattering a comforting backdrop, though for some reason he found it hard to bring the words into focus.

One teammember accounted for, Grimlock focused his senses further, picking up two additional voices. One an unhappy grumbling, the other a calm counterpoint. Slag complaining to a mostly indifferent Snarl. His second-in-command liked complaining almost as much as he liked fighting and that was saying a lot in someone with a temper as volatile as Slag’s. Snarl’s ‘couldn’t care less’- attitude worked as a perfect foil, analyzing the situation and providing short and clear suggestions for improvement.

This left him one mech shy of his full team and Grimlock was about to boot his optics to go search for Sludge when heavy pedesteps approached and a voice that was filled with more innocence than such a big frame should hold, piped up with a question. The words were grasped, but their meaning escaped him as soon as he processed them. The question didn’t seem addressed to him though, so that was fine.

The answer came from a fifth mech, a mech he couldn’t place, a mech that was not part of his team. Confused, the Dinobot Commander tilted the head of his altmode and onlined his optics, getting a view of this mysterious speaker: a smallish mech in a weird orange color with a big, strong chin and goggles pushed up on his helm. Something clicked inside Grimlock’s brainmodule and as he looked around the rest of the room, the chrome with gold, red and blue accents he had been expecting slid away. 

There was a purple flier resting against his side that gave him a cocky grin when he saw Grimlock was awake, a deep blue mech with a scowl had been the complaining bot and another mech with an air of authority around him and fins on his shoulders stood beside him. The big mech in the doorway was a rotary.

He had been so close to what he had been missing all along and the realization that he could hardly remember what it was when it had been so clear a moment ago sent a stab of desolation through his spark.

Luckily for him, it only lasted a moment before it was gone in the haze that re-enveloped his processor.


	6. Day 25 - Scavengers Day - Ambition is the first step to success

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Standard Disclaimer apply: all characters belong to Hasbro/IDW
> 
> Set somewhere after LL24 with everyone surviving the Unicron-arc.

Krok was a mech with ambitions. Not on the same scale as say, Megatron with his Quest for Universal Domination, but still. He had plans.

The clinic would be a good starting point, he mused. Of course, to run it he would need a place to set up and a team to help him. He was off to a good start with the Scavengers, though others tended not to see it that way. Krok wasn’t blind to the fact that his mechs needed a lot more supervision than a normal unit, but that was alright, he was more than up to the task.

With picking up Nickel, he had managed to secure a second (somewhat less trigger-happy) medic, which was a good thing for any clinic. Cranckcase, despite the grumbling, was a very good mechanic. Fulcrum could draw on his tech-background to take care of the administration. Misfire could...well, he’d find some kind of use for Misfire.

That left Grimlock..and the source of Krok’s current plans. The Scavengers were good: despite their weird backgrounds and penchant for trouble. Grimlock pulled them out of said trouble, he was big enough and powerful enough that most mechs and organics would think twice before trying to tackle him. Now imagine a whole team of Grimlocks! The Dinobots were still on Cybertron, reduced to 4 members and missing their leader. A leader that seemed, even now with his mind restored, not too disinclined to take orders from Krok.

That just opened up all kinds of possibilities: they could have an entire city around their clinic, where mechs could live while they received the treatment they needed. And he could assure they were kept safe while they were emotionally at their most vulnerable.

Perhaps he should send Misfire along with Grimlock to go collect the Dinobots, that mech could talk circles around anyone until they agreed to whatever he wanted just to get rid of the incessant talking. Ha! He’d like to see the Dinobots say no to that! Plus, it would be a great career opportunity, working with interesting mechs and doing what they did best.

An explosion from deeper in the ship accompanied by the wail of a siren and Misfire swearing up and down that he hadn’t done anything, it was already like that when he arrived, tore Krok from his pleasant planning session. When he arrived to see things burning that shouldn’t even be able to catch fire, he sighed. 

Maybe he shouldn’t send Misfire after all.

And no, that did not invalidate the rest of his plan.

_(I’ve always wanted to see what a reunion between Grimlock, the Scavengers and the Dinobots would have looked like. Probably massive chaos, but they all seem to thrive on it so… happy ending?)_


End file.
